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Jason MacDonald named Harper's new communications director

Jason MacDonald has been named Harper's new chief spokesperson.Photo: Pat McGrath/Ottawa Citizen

Jason Fekete, Ottawa Citizen

Published: September 12, 2013 - 10:12 AM

Updated: September 12, 2013 - 2:36 PM

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s new chief spokesman is a well-respected figure in government circles who admits to trying marijuana in high school and lists controversial Canadian rocker Neil Young as his favourite singer.

Harper has named Jason MacDonald as his new communications director to sell the government’s message heading into the 2015 election, the Prime Minister’s Office confirmed Thursday.

MacDonald was the director of communications for federal Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt until this week, and is a former Ontario provincial Tory candidate. He is Harper’s eighth director of communications since taking office in 2006.

A bilingual public relations specialist who is well-liked and respected within government, MacDonald ran unsuccessfully for the Ontario Progressive Conservatives in the 2011 provincial election against former premier Dalton McGuinty in the riding of Ottawa South.

He finished second to McGuinty with 14,945 votes, or about 33 per cent of the vote, compared to McGuinty’s 21,842 (about 49 per cent of the popular vote).

MacDonald, who’s in his early 40s, is a former director of communications at Carleton University in Ottawa, and previously held a senior corporate role with the CBC.

In a 2011 interview with the Ottawa Sun prior to the election, MacDonald acknowledged he tried marijuana in high school. His appointment comes as the debate rages among federal political leaders over legalizing or decriminalizing marijuana, with Harper arguing that Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau has displayed poor judgment and is “promoting marijuana use for our children” by admitting he smoked pot as an MP.

MacDonald has a “huge” vinyl records collection, and he told the Sun in 2011 that his first job was delivering the Montreal Gazette newspaper around age 10, while also having his own lawn mowing business.

His favourite singer, he said at the time, was Canadian Neil Young, who just this week assailed the Fort McMurray oilsands as “a wasteland” that “looks like Hiroshima.”

Asked which people he would like to spend an hour with that he had never met, he named first Canadian prime minister John A. Macdonald, Samuel de Champlain (explorer and founder of Quebec City) and former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher.

Andrew MacDougall, Harper’s former communications director who left the post last week to take a job in London, England, lauded his replacement.

“Jason brings an experienced and steady hand to the position of director of communications. He knows the importance of communicating at all levels, not just to the press gallery. He is competent, professional, and tough,” MacDougall said in an email.

“He has a proven track record, in both official languages, as a spokesperson, in media relations, strategic communications, team building and management, in government and the private sector.”

MacDonald, who’s married and a father, will take on enormous responsibility in communicating the government’s message heading into the 2015 federal election.

He’ll help prepare the government for a throne speech and new session of Parliament that begins Oct. 16.

He brings with him experience in handling an increasingly complex file at Aboriginal Affairs, as First Nations and other aboriginal groups have criticized the Harper government for what they say is a lack of consultation over economic development and treaty rights.

Federal records show MacDonald was lobbied in his job at Aboriginal Affairs by companies and organizations such as Canadian National Railway, TransCanada Corporation, the Canadian Council of Chief Executives and the University of Calgary.

MacDonald participated in a leadership program at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, and holds a master of arts degree from Wilfrid Laurier University and bachelor of arts from Bishop’s University.